To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Hobbes Scott, 8 February 1803
From Thomas Hobbes Scott
London Feby 8th. 1803—
Sir/
Tho’ a Stranger to your person yet not so to your fame, I have taken the liberty of forwarding to Mr Paine a small pamphlet accompanied with a letter under the protection of your Excellency. I am induced to trouble you in this manner, because its being directed to him wou’d occasion the curiosity of the officers of our Government to open & stop it; tho’ it contains nothing upon politicks, this I shou’d not wish to be done as I have requested him to send me some books from America—
I congratulate yourself & the true friends of liberty both of America & England on the accession of your Excellency to chair of government of the United States
From your known principles & your late addresses to Congress, there is every reason to beleive how much the country will flourish under your administration.
I trust your Excellency will pardon this intrusion upon your time & the liberty I have taken—
I have the honor to be Your Excellency’s most obedt. Servt.
Thos. Hobbes Scott
RC (MoSHi: Jefferson Papers); endorsed by TJ as received 6 May and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure not identified.
An English native, Thomas Hobbes Scott (1783–1860) matriculated at Oxford at the age of 30, and subsequently received his degrees from there. At some point between 1794, when his father died without leaving him an inheritance, and matriculating at Oxford, he served as vice-consul at Bordeaux and was also a wine merchant there. Ordained as an Anglican priest, he accepted appointment in 1824 as first archdeacon of New South Wales, where he drew public attention to the need for colonial education (Australian Dictionary of Biography, 17 vols. [Melbourne, 1966–2007], 2:431–3).